The Andes form the backbone of South America. Radiating from Cuzco—the symbolic "navel" of the indigenous world—the mountain range was home to the Incas, an extraordinary theocratic empire and civilization that built stone temples, roads, palaces, and forts. Jason Wilson explores the 5,000-mile chain of volcanoes, deep valleys, and upland plains, revealing the Andes' mystery, inaccessibility, and power through the insights of historical chroniclers, scientists, and modern-day novelists. His account starts at sacred Cuzco and Machu Picchu, moves along imagined Inca routes south to Lake Titicaca, La Paz, and Potosi, and then follows the Argentine and Chilean Andes to Patagonia. Wilson then heads north again through Chimborazo, Quito, and into Colombia, along the Cauca Valley up to Bogota and east to Caracas.